Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Motivation Monday: Never Say Die

Episode Date: April 20, 2020

This episode is part of a monthly series that I have dubbed “Motivation Monday.” (Yes, I know, very creative of me. What can I say, I’m a genius…) Seriously though, the idea here is simple: One Monday every month, I’m going to post a short and punchy episode that I hope gets you fired up to tackle the workouts, work, and everything else that you have planned for the week ahead. As we all know, it’s one thing to know what you want to do, but it’s something else altogether to actually make yourself do it, and I hope that this series gives you a jolt of inspiration, energy, and encouragement to get at it. So, if you like what you hear, then make sure to check back for the latest and greatest installment.   --- Mentioned on The Show: Legion Supplements: legionathletics.com/shop/ ---   Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: https://www.legionathletics.com/signup/

Welcome to another episode of Muscle for Life. I'm Mike Matthews. And if my audio sounds better, it's because I've found, I think, the best place in my house to do this. The room with the best acoustics. See, I don't have very much carpet in my house. It's only in the basement. And so I was having trouble finding a place where there wasn't echoing. And this seems to be the best room. The bedroom in the basement, carpet, there's a bed, there's things to absorb sound. Anyway, thank you for joining me on today's episode, which is going to be about the current global situation. I don't have to tell you that it is daunting.

And the biggest challenge for many of us is perhaps just the uncertainty, right? Where will things go from here? When will we be able to return to life as we knew it? And how long will it take for life to feel normal again? Nobody knows. Time will tell. But here's what we do know. We're still here and we are still in the game. We still have work to do and we can still serve others. Now, before we get to the show, if you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, and if you want to help me help more people get into the best shape of their lives, please do consider supporting my sports nutrition company, Legion Athletics, which produces 100% natural evidence-based health and fitness supplements,

including protein powders and protein bars, pre-workout and post-workout supplements, fat burners, multivitamins, joint support, and more. Every ingredient and dose in every product of mine is backed by peer-reviewed scientific research. Every formulation is 100% transparent, no proprietary blends, and everything is naturally sweetened and flavored. To check it out, just head over to legionathletics.com. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code MFL at checkout, and you will save 20% on your entire order if it is your first purchase with us. And if it is not your first purchase, then you will get double reward points on your entire order, which is essentially getting 10% cash back in rewards points. So again, that URL is legionathletics.com.

And if you appreciate my work and if you want to see more of it, please do consider supporting me so I can keep doing what I love, like producing podcasts like this. We can't give up and give into despair. If we do that, then we let the virus win without having to even get it, without it having to even enter our body. If we decide, though, to be resourceful and resilient, and if we decide to persist and prosper, we can emerge from this pandemic stronger in body, mind, and spirit. There's a term that was coined by the financial analyst Nassim Taleb called anti-fragility. And he used this to describe something that doesn't merely survive shocks, but benefits from them. Such things are not easily damaged, defeated, or destroyed. And this is a powerful concept to embrace right now.

Now is the time to work toward anti-fragility because in many competitions, you do not have to be the best to win. You just have to be harder to destroy. For example, do you know why bulldogs were such formidable opponents in 19th century dog fighting? It's not because they were the strongest or the most agile or the most hostile breed, but because the extra fat and skin around their necks made it harder to rip their throats out. Other dogs had to work overtime to kill them. And we can learn something from that. Because when

you are indefatigable, when you can absorb a tremendous number of blows to get into the pole position, and when you can embrace and even rejoice in adversity, you might strike out from time to time. It's probably going to happen, but you are going to bat a lot better than average. And don't think you can't do it either. You can do it. It is literally in your DNA because not so long ago, our forebears had to chase, fight, and kill just to survive. They expected hardship. They were willing to face the worst. They embraced the fact that the universe in all its apparent tranquility is a carefully balanced chaos of forces that we barely understand. And now is the time to act like we descended from these hardy men and women.

What's more, many of history's greatest figures and many of today's strongest companies emerged from turbulent times and industries. And that's probably not a coincidence because contrary to popular belief, it's not the smartest or the strongest that survives, but the most adaptable. In other words, nature rewards the nimble, and extreme environments call for extreme elasticity. So as the panic mounts and the jungle drums beat louder, know this, no matter how formidable circumstances might be, we can respond in one of two ways. We can view them either as a challenge or a threat. We can choose to redirect anxiety, stress, and fear toward positive outcomes. We can choose to push through pain for the opportunity to learn important lessons. And we can choose to never say die no matter how fiercely the winds of fate blow. We're living through history. A sea change

is underway. Let's make's it for today's episode. I hope you found it interesting and helpful. And if you did, and you don't mind doing me a favor, could you please leave a quick review for the podcast on iTunes or wherever you are listening from? Because those reviews not only convince people that they should check out the show, They also increase the search visibility and help more people find their way to me and to the podcast and learn how to build their best body ever as well. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then simply subscribe to the podcast and whatever app you're using to listen, and you will not miss out on any of the new stuff that I have coming. And last, if you didn't like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email

at mike at muscleforlife.com and share your thoughts. Let me know how you think I could do this better. I read every email myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback. All right. Thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon.